Just recently a body cam video of a police officer was released showing an officer saving the life of a puppy that was very young. The puppy was first heard yelping from the vehicle with its windows cracked in a mall parking lot at which point bystanders phoned the police for assistance. After arriving at the scene, the officer requested permission to act from his commanding officer and proceeded to break the vehicle's window and pull the dog from underneath the seat.

We don’t know all of the details behind the situation, but according to the video you’ll watch in a moment, the interior of the vehicle was approaching 150 degrees. That said, the puppy must have been left in the vehicle for a long period of time. Luckily, the officer was able to give the puppy a drink of water and proceeded to place it inside his air-conditioned cruiser until the puppy’s owners came outside.

We don’t get to see how the owners reacted to the situation, but some sources are indicating that the owners were cited for Cruelty to an Animal, which in the state of Florida, comes with a fine of $150. Unfortunately, the puppy was so young that the police department decided it was best to return the puppy to the owners so that it could continue nursing from its mother. Keep reading to see the body cam video and to hear my thoughts on the whole situation.

Apparently, the owners got a good earful to go with that $150 ticket. Plus, they will now have to replace the car window, but I still don’t think that is anywhere near enough. Sources report that the outside temperature the day of the incident was 90 degrees, so it is feasible that the temperature inside was approached the 140 – 150-degree range. I personally don’t think the puppy should have been given back to the owners, as they are obviously unfit to own an animal, but I can understand that, at that age, the puppy still needs to nurse from its mother. I just wish the owners could have been given a harsher punishment.

On another note, I’ve seen a lot of interesting comments all over the web about this video. Some of you are saying that the officer was wrong for breaking the window or “why couldn’t he use a slim jim” or “why not call AAA and have a tow truck driver with a slim jim assist?” Let me put this simply. A dog can dehydrate very quickly and anyone who disputes the officer’s actions should spend 20 minutes in a locked up sweat chamber of a car themselves. Also, most officers don’t carry slim jims anymore, and there is a good reason why. First, they used to receive way too many non-emergency calls for lockouts and, second, slim jims don’t work on a lot of newer cars these days. Why couldn’t the officer wait for a tow truck driver? Well, if you were dying inside of a car from heat exhaustion, would you want to wait 30-45 minutes for someone else to show up? I don’t think so, and neither did that puppy. With that said, tell us what you think about this in the comments section below.